


On the Brink of a Frozen Sea

by LimeGreenBunny



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 10:29:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LimeGreenBunny/pseuds/LimeGreenBunny
Summary: Jaune Arc's arduous quest to avenge Pyrrha's death has brought him to the edge of the world. Weary of his life, he is about to give himself up to the elements until a mysterious visitor appears before him.





	On the Brink of a Frozen Sea

He had reached the end. Not only the world's end, in the far south seas where the warm water and the cold did not mix, but what was also looking like the end of his life.

Jaune inhaled the frigid air feeling like ice crystals were forming in his chest. Everyone he had brought with him, the sailors of the little sailboat he had hired, even those he had befriended had left one by one as they had realized how hopeless his quest really was. The last one, the captain, had perished in a Grimm attack that Jaune himself had barely escaped from alive. He had literally led the man to his death.

Small pieces of ice floated lazily on the other side of the line of foam dividing the seas; the details of the scene were becoming more clear as he drifted closer to that line. His weathered hands loosened their grip on the rudder as his thoughts slowly drifted back to his friends.

He had left them all behind. Weiss, Blake, Yang, even Ruby and Nora and Ren...they were all far away now. They had told him his quest was pointless, that revenge would be empty, that they needed him with them in the front lines of battle. In his heart he had known they were right.

But he had left them all the same. Was he a coward? Perhaps just a fool? It probably didn't matter. He was never going to see them again. Even if he could go back he was sure they couldn't have all survived this long. So much of the world was burning, the battles growing ever fiercer, and the Grimm becoming more horrific by the day. 

He had justified himself by saying that he was still fighting the enemy in his own way, but the futility of his quest had become more and more apparent as he went on. He may have started by hunting for that woman, for Cinder, but the plots and schemes had gone far deeper than he imagined, and the people involved, the people who needed to  _pay_...it seemed like he would never find his way through their webs of darkness and deceit. 

The boat was quite near the line of foam now, drifting almost parallel to it. He was so cold. It couldn't be long now. He laid down at the bottom of the boat, the last shreds of his survival instinct prompting him to cover his aching frozen body with a fur blanket. Or maybe it was that he wanted to hide himself from this place. Everything was too bright and crisp and piercingly blue. It was all beautiful in its own way, but there was something playful yet cold uncaring about way the ice chunks mingled and danced around each other. He didn't want to think about the reality of his life now. He wanted to spend his last thoughts thinking of her. 

Pyrrha. She had been warm like the sun, full of strength and purpose, always sharing her kindness with her loved ones and thinking of others even when she was suffering herself. He thought of the times they had spent together training or just talking, sharing their dreams and their insecurities. He remembered the school dance and how lovely she had looked in her dress as she laughed and spun around the ballroom floor. He remembered their first and only kiss right before she had gone to fight Cinder. When she was murdered his world had been drained of warmth, like the sun in winter. 

_Jaune..._

The sea wind whistled in his ears. He shifted, trying to get comfortable. He'd heard that if you fell asleep in freezing temperatures you wouldn't wake up. It sounded like an easy way to go. 

_Jaune..._

Was he losing his mind? It sounded like the wind was whispering his name.

_Jaune...get up..._

_No,_  he thought.

"Jaune, you have to get up"

He bolted to his feet. Someone was on the boat with him, standing not three feet away. He peered at the figure. It was so transparent that it was difficult to make out details, but he realized after a moment that it was a tall young woman...almost as tall as he was...and her face...

"Pyrrha?" he gasped.

She smiled, and any doubt as to whose features he was looking at fled his mind.

"I've lost it," he said and made to grab her by the shoulders. He felt nothing there besides the cold winter air.

"Yeah," he sighed with something that was either relief or disappointment, "You're not real."

"I'm real, Jaune," the ghostly Pyrrha said lifting her hand slightly. Jaune raised his hand to meet her fingers but again felt nothing. "Though," she said, "I can understand why you wouldn't believe me." 

He gritted his teeth and turned away. The boat was now sailing down the line of foam between the seas, nearly centered on it. The sun was setting, giving the air a slightly warmer tinge.

"Jaune, why did you leave our friends?" She hadn't disappeared.

"I was trying to find the...the people that killed you....I had to—no! Stop it, you aren't real!" He whirled around to face the specter. "I don't know what you are, or why you want to hurt me, but you need to leave  _now_."

A look of sorrow crossed Pyrrha's face and she looked to the horizon where a large dark blue cloud was gathering, backlit by the sun.

"I don't have much time," she whispered.

Jaune felt weak. He fell to his knees and held his head in his hands. 

"Pyrrha," he sobbed, "Why did you go? Why did you follow that woman? I told you not to. I told you she was too strong."

"Jaune,"

He looked up blinking through his tears. She had knelt down too, their faces were only inches apart. 

"You know why I did it. Who knows what might have happened if I didn't."

 _The relic..._ he thought.

"Jaune, you need to go back. Ruby and the others need you." 

"I can't," he said, "I'm so tired of everything. I don't want to go on. Not without you."

Pyrrha closed her eyes and inhaled. For a moment she became slightly more opaque. Red hair, light skin, brown and gold armor, colors rushed into her as she breathed in. She leaned in and he felt...something. Nothing quite as solid as a touch, but it had the same warmth, the same electrifying feeling of skin on skin; lips against his, and hands on his face. Warmth and energy rushed into his body. He felt her withdraw and opened his eyes, catching just a glimpse of her emerald green ones through his tears.

"I have been by your side through all of your battles."

"Pyrrha," he whispered, "I love you, I never got to tell you—" He thought she smiled, but she was fading away fast.

 _Go,_ said her voice, again just a whisper on the wind. And then she was gone.

Jaune pulled himself upright. She must have been real after all, and somehow she had brought him back from the brink. His body was still cold but he felt alive again. A fire had been kindled inside him, a burning that drove him forward but was so different from the consuming darkness that had pushed him on his empty quest for revenge.  

He grabbed the rudder and turned the boat northward, away from the icy sea that had almost been his grave. He would go back. He would find his friends and fight beside them no matter what it took. If they triumphed he could rest and know that he had done his part. If they failed, well, maybe at least he could be with Pyrrha again.

**Author's Note:**

> One morning I had one of the most vivid, detailed, and beautiful dreams I've ever had in my life featuring Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos's ghost, and boat sailing at the border between two seas. I woke up and typed the dream on my laptop, only needing to add two or three bits of explanation to make it into a cohesive story. 
> 
> Seriously, everything was there, even details like the dancing ice pieces, Pyrrha watching the sun set behind the blue cloud, Jaune trying to touch her to see if she was real, there was even a brief flash showing team RWBY, Nora, and Ren fighting hordes of Grimm on a burning plain. And there was so much symbolism too, like the two seas symbolizing life and death. You could also listen to "Cold" from the Volume 3 soundtrack if you wanted to ensure your own teary demise. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! Don't feel like you are bothering me a bit, I will die from happiness over a good review of my work. Or if you just need a place to weep about Pyrrha and Arkos, or theorize about the show I am sO HERE FOR IT.


End file.
